Just had an interesting idea today. I'm not completely in love with it, but here goes:

The Engineer would no longer build the Territory Claim, Sweatshop, Oil Pump, or Sentrygun. Instead, he would build Prospectors. The Prospector is a somewhat weak building that can lift-off and build the aforementioned four buildings as add-ons. As add-ons, they would carry the same placement restrictions as they currently do, necessitating the same expansion mechanics. What this would add is the ability to harass and shut down the buildings by killing the weaker Prospector, or even capturing the buildings by destroying the Prospector and building/moving your own onto the location. This would open up a unique strategy against turtling wherein Sentryguns could be turned against their maker.

The downside to this idea is that it adds an extra step to the economy and more micromanagement. If we can find out how to increase the "Resource Depot redzone" range, then I would increase their effectiveness to compensate, evening everything out but with the benefit of fewer actions to net the same result.

in human vs. human i think that would be more of a hassle to the players than it would add anything to the fun or flavor of the game.

in the current version humans lack the ability to really make an army and on top of that drop tech and dropships are really expensive so you hardly ever see them until the end of the game so getting into your opponents base is unlikely.

if you want the economies to be more vulnerable besides having to do anything fancy maybe consider putting less emphasis on the sweatshops/refineries and more on the engineer, so that building the shops/refineries is cheap and fast but you dont get much return unless you have engineers in them, so that players have to eat more supply up with their engineers, forcing them to build more territory claims. humans would need to expand outward a whole bunch more and handle a ton of different economic fronts while the opponent can harass their weaker supply lines because the humans probably wont be able to keep their army up with their increasing surface area.

i also think an interesting idea would be moving the dropship lower on the tech tree and lowering its capacity and probably changing its speed stats because iirc its really annoying to control. right now it holds like 4 units but i think even then with the firepower that human units can carry, 4 units can be a lot and is a lot of mobility because it is far easier to attack using harriers than it is to ferry your army to where you are being attacked. i think more agile transports lower in the tech tree that can only hold two, or even one, unit could create some neat situations, especially if you create the transport from the hub.

on top of that drop tech and dropships are really expensive so you hardly ever see them until the end of the game so getting into your opponents base is unlikely.

Taking over Claims, Shops, and Pumps was more intended for games versus multiple people, so you could acquire the remains of a fallen opponent (or even a dropped ally). Sentrygun-stealing is the only intented offensive use of the concept.

if you want the economies to be more vulnerable

That's only part of it. I liked the idea of being able to shut those buildings down (like the Unpowered state, but affects supply, too) without destroying them.

besides having to do anything fancy maybe consider putting less emphasis on the sweatshops/refineries and more on the engineer, so that building the shops/refineries is cheap and fast but you dont get much return unless you have engineers in them,

In the released version of STF, Engineers cost $100 to a Shop's $200 or a Pump's $300. Cost-wise, it is more efficient to load up less Shops/Pumps than to build more and leave them empty. The dynamic could be shifted further in the Engineer's favor, something like 1 resource from the actual building.

so that players have to eat more supply up with their engineers, forcing them to build more territory claims.

Didn't you just say Human's had difficulty getting an army?

humans would need to expand outward a whole bunch more and handle a ton of different economic fronts while the opponent can harass their weaker supply lines because the humans probably wont be able to keep their army up with their increasing surface area.

That's the general idea behind the territory system.

By playing less emphasis on the building, and more on the Engineer, players wouldn't have the choice between conserving space at a cost of supply by using Engineers, or conserving supply at a cost of space by building many more empty shops/pumps.

i also think an interesting idea would be moving the dropship lower on the tech tree and lowering its capacity and probably changing its speed stats because iirc its really annoying to control.

Ospreys were very powerful in the original STF, so I intentially limited them. Their control style is meant to empahsize fast point A to point B travel, and less on pop-n-drops.

The control was also done to create a dynamic between Harriers and Ospreys. Harriers are far more agile, but their overall speed is less. The result is a Harrier can outmanuever an Osprey to do some serious damage, but the Osprey can get away once its built up momentum.

right now it holds like 4 units but i think even then with the firepower that human units can carry, 4 units can be a lot and is a lot of mobility

Yep. In a ground-based game, aerial transports are much more potent. Remember the 8-unit capacity Ospreys in the original STF? HW Guy drops were game-ending.

because it is far easier to attack using harriers than it is to ferry your army to where you are being attacked.

Attack using Harriers? Or do you mean to defend against drops using Harriers?

i think more agile transports lower in the tech tree that can only hold two, or even one, unit could create some neat situations, especially if you create the transport from the hub.

Actually, I have the Osprey/Harrier coming from the Hub planned already. Airfield is out, and the Hanger will be renamed to Landing Pad and built as an add-on for the Hub. The Hub will have two unit submenues: one for mercenaries, the other for vehicles.

As for reducing the Osprey's unit capacity, I could simply increase the unit size of military units to 2 (like Hydras/Zealots/Goliaths).

Last edited by Hercanic on Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.